American senators to visit Russia at end of month: report

American lawmakers are reportedly set to meet with members of the Russian Duma in early July. (Pavel Golovkin / AP)

A group of American senators will travel to Russia at the end of the month and celebrate Independence Day in Moscow, according to a report.

The delegation will arrive in St. Petersburg on June 30 and spend time there before heading to the country’s capital on July 3 and 4th for meetings with lawmakers, Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing an unnamed official.

A group of Republican senators had been planning a visit to the country after an invitation from U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman, the Washington Post reported last week.

Those reportedly part of the group included Richard Shelby of Alabama, John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana and North Dakota’s John Hoeven, though those members have not announced any plans.

Leonid Slutsky, a Russian Duma deputy on the foreign relations committee, said that he did not know which American senators would arrive and from which committees they would come from.

Shelby, Kennedy and Hoeven are on neither the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee or on the Senate Intelligence Committee that issued a report last month saying Russia tried to influence the 2016 election.

Though visits between lawmakers of different countries are normal, the visit would be the first major delegation to visit Moscow since relations between it and Washington have reached an unprecedented low following the alleged election interference.

California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who was has been supportive of the Vladimir Putin administration, visited in spring 2016, while New York state senator Diane Savino went last year.